Yasnaya Polyana is a special place: it is both Leo Tolstoy's family estate and a vast museum-reserve where you can literally immerse yourself in the writer's life.

The first documented mention of the estate dates back to 1652: at that time, it was a small village bordering the "wild field." In 1763, part of the estate was acquired by Prince Sergei Volkonsky, Leo Tolstoy's maternal great-grandfather. The estate was later inherited by his son, Nikolai Volkonsky: it was he who shaped its basic appearance, laying out parks and gardens, digging ponds, and creating the architectural ensemble with the manor house and outbuildings.

In 1824, the Tolstoy family (following Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya's marriage to Count Nikolai Ilyich) settled on the estate. Leo Nikolayevich was born here on August 28 (September 9), 1828. In 1847, the estate passed to him by inheritance. Tolstoy did not make any significant changes to the estate's appearance, preserving the existing buildings and the park layout. He spent most of his life at Yasnaya Polyana and created many of his masterpieces—War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection.